Goal Should Have Stood

16 March 2015

Boss left frustrated after Crewe's leveller was chalked off incorrectly

Steve Davis blamed individual mistakes for us conceding five goals at Preston North End at the weekend, but the Alex boss was left immensely frustrated as his battling side were denied a perfectly good goal with the score at 2-1. Forwards Nicky Ajose and Marcus Haber combined inside the Preston penalty area to allow the big Canadian to slot home what looked like an equaliser, only for the referee to interpret a slip by a defender as a foul.

Crewe had battled hard to get themselves back in the game after two fairly strikes from the clinical Joe Garner had put them 2-0 up. Ollie Turton had squeezed one in before the break and Haber’s ‘equaliser’ would have given us a major lift at Deepdale at a crucial time of the game. Minutes later, Garner completed his hat-trick to increase Preston’s advantage back to two goals.

Steve told the club’s official web-site: “As a group we always reflect over things and that started almost immediately.

“I’ve watched the game back and we made some basic errors for the goals. We had done well to get ourselves back into the game and I didn’t see anything wrong with the disallowed goal. It should have stood.

“The defender misjudged the ball, lost his balance and Marcus got in and tucked it away nicely. It shouldn’t have disallowed and it will be going into the referee’s report.

“It was a crucial moment in the game and would have put us level. We had fought back from 2-0 down and that next goal was going to be crucial. Our goal was disallowed and then they go up the other end to make it 3-1.

He added: “It could have changed the complexion of the game and given us more confidence and when you go to a team that is close to the top of the league and flying then you need those things to go for you. Sometimes they do and sometimes they don’t and I was disappointed with the decision at the time and even more so now my suspicions were confirmed on the DVD.”